itscurtains | Week Five

Entry tags:

act 3,
week 5

Week Five

[Last week, you had your very first minor body pileup! Granted, the Balladeer's death was entirely unrelated to anything, but at least he died as he lived - getting completely fucked up in some kind of carnival-themed hellscape. Only two days later, another terrible accident took Rina and Varian both from you. It's just been one of those weeks, huh? At least you got to add both of their corpses to your weird growing collection!

Again, you'll wake up this morning with another new snippet of memory. You'll also find that the stairs in the lobby are no longer blocked. You can only access one part of the second floor, but it seems like there's some neat stuff up there!

Outside, a few things seem to have changed. For one, the weather has turned - it'll be overcast this week, with periodic rain and even scattered thunderstorms. For another, the bushes around that rock out by the football field have bloomed. That's nice.

Get to it, friends! I'm sure everything will be fine this week!]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

(( Be sure to submit your memory regain and your AC for this week! As always, Hester's office hours and the merch booth remain available. ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh? Are you sure that's a good idea right now?

[ Orpheus asks this, already taking a joint. Anyway, the fun thing about marijuana is that modern strains of it are leaps and bounds stronger than anything that existed fifty or even thirty years ago, so you can imagine how unexpectedly hard it hits him. He sits on the floor, propped up against the wall, playing his guitar. He sure is playing it. Man, this song goes on a lot longer than you remember, huh? He... might've forgotten how the rest of it goes, or maybe he just keeps losing his place and starting over. Either way, he's going for it. ]

I knew it! [Farrah shrieks, with the intensity that.... someone might have, if they kept asking about a landline in a home where murders keep happening.]

I knew you fuckin knew wonderwall!!!

What's wonderwall? [ he asks, a good seven minutes into playing Wonderwall, a song that is, by all accounts, a little over four and a half minutes long. ]

HE’S PLAYING IT RIGHT NOW.

Who's playing it? [ Orpheus frowns, looking around for anyone else playing an instrument. Eight minutes into Wonderwall. ]

[ helping: ]

Mmm. I bet Mister Hermes knows Wonderwall.

Probably! He knows nearly as many songs as my mom does, and he like, invented the lyre. He probably knows every song ever written for it.

Wow. [ Eurydice holds her hand up, counting on her fingers. ] I think I know...six songs? I like the one you're playing.

He’s playing Wonderwall! [RIGHT? IS SHE… WAY MORE HIGH THAN SHE THOUGHT SHE WAS?]

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[ Peregrine just straight up forgets songs can end. ]

[ We're just in Wonderwall purgatory now. This is what the rest of the game is. Goodnight, everyone. ]

[hey Orpheus, your knees aren't occupied, right??? Great, because Salieri is going to just decide that they are great pillows. So he's going to just set his wine down, get on the floor and just put his head on your knees.

Sup.]

S'a pretty song.

[ It's a little hard to play the ~~lyre~~ guitar with so many of his favorite people draped over him, but Orpheus sure isn't complaining. ]

Thanks! It's, um. I think it's supposed to go like this at some point? [ He pauses to play the bridge, shifting seamlessly into it despite his confusion, before returning to the infinite intro. ] But I can't remember where that goes, and this part is fun to play, so I'll figure it out later.

[Salieri waves a hand at that]

If it's fun, what else matters? It sounds fun.

Right! Music is best when you can tell the person playing is having a good time. It sounds um. It sounds... [ He pauses (and yet continues playing), searching for the right word. ] not fun? Stiff, otherwise. Unless they're playing a sad song, but even then.

No, you're right, even sad songs need someone to enjoy playing them. [he nods his head in agreement] Not matter the piece, it has to have heart. [VERY SERIOUSLY]

Yes! There's an art in sadness. I, um.

[ Brief interlude as he plays yet more Wonderwall in contemplative silence, trying to remember what he's talking about. ]

I don't like most tragedies, much? I like stories with happy endings better. But I know they're an important kind of story to tell, because - because they're about what could've been. If someone had been a little less stubborn, or a little more kind, or braver at the right moment, or more patient. Or if people around them had been those things, and not pushed them to make the wrong choices. And we're supposed to see that, and learn from it.

[ Wonderwall continues.

I just... like it better, when the characters get the chance to learn, too. Instead of ruining their chances forever, and being left there at the end.

Tragedies...they're supposed to be a lesson. Something to teach us; to learn from the mistakes of others. And, in some ways, to feel better about our own flaws. To know that we aren't alone, even when we make mistakes, or fail, or have our own fatal flaws.

[he quiets a moment]

But...I think I agree with you. Despite the supposed catharsis of tragedy, at the end, you need to have hope. That even when our own flaws or situations cause us to stumble and fall, we can get back up again. Or that there are people around us who will forgive us, and help us stand back up again.

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[Spongebob is just... gonna listen to Orpheus play, completely enraptured.]

This is the best song ever.

[He does not realize this is just a single chord even ten minutes into it.]

[ Orpheus just nods at him, beaming, before something seems to strike him suddenly. ]

Wait! I remember how the rest of it goes! [ he says, and launches into the more complex arrangement of the first chorus, at long last. When it ends, though, he's back to that same chord, which in his defense is how the song goes, but it seems like they're not quite out of the woods just yet. ]

[Honestly Spongebob can barely comprehend the arrangement, so he just stares with a blank, hazy smile.]

Orpheus are you some kinda god?

[...He's saying that this music is great.]

[ He just laughs at that, like Spongebob has just told him a truly incredible joke. ]

No! But my mom is, and she taught me how to play! Not this song, though. I'm not... sure where I got this one from? I definitely didn't write it.

So

You're a mini god?

Tha's really cool... maybe you... you have music premonitions...

Yes! Or, I mean, I'm a demigod. But mini god also works! And I did learn a song that the god of the Underworld sang thousands of years ago from a dream once. Maybe this one came from the gods too?

This whole time... I was friends with a mini god...

[He's in awe.]

...Wait

Since this song came from the gods.

Does it have magic powers?

[Tiny gasp!]